


let me tell you something (something about yourself)

by orphan_account



Category: IT (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe- Modern Setting - Freeform, Alternate Universe- No Pennywise, Alternate Universe- Retail, Eddie runs an advice blog, Eddie works in retail, Fluff, Fluff and more fluff, Kasplon friendship, M/M, Richie works at Starbucks, Richie.... needs advice, This is... happy, Tumblr AU, stozier friendship, what up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-22
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2020-03-09 17:35:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18921808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Eddie startled, quickly slamming the lid of his computer down. His advice blog was a top secret of his, the only person who knew he did was his best friend from high school, Mike. They’d both made blogs back in the early years of high school, and Eddie had clung to his as a perfect escape from the bullshit of the real world. He didn’t think Mike still used it, but he was the only person who knew that Eddie used his. And what he used it for.“Sure slammed that shut pretty quick,” Richie commented with a small whistle. He raised his eyebrow and cocked his lips up into half a grin. His small overbite was barely obvious from that smile, but it was still annoying adorable. Eddie supposed that must things were annoyingly adorable about Richie Tozier. “Are you looking at porn on the job, Kaspbrak? Or do you just have deep dark hidden secret out there on the Internet?”[or: eddie kaspbrak runs an advice blog online, and he finds that maybe he’s starting to develop feelings for the cute, regular anon he gets gushing about their crush. meanwhile, richie tozier opens up his heart about falling in love to an anonymous advice blogger.]





	1. Chapter 1

 

Eddie wondered if it was a little sad how excited he got when the message in his inbox started with a little purple heart emoji. Because his little heart definitely jumped in his chest every time he saw it at the front, and that message always got instant priority over whatever else was in his inbox.

_omg cute boy did the most perfect thing today. i dont even have a genuine question here, or anything i just need to express how perfect this tiny human is and i think all my friends are tired of hearing about gfhdlgfhakjahsjlga i wanna hold his stupid tiny hand._

Eddie smiled to himself, clicking on the reply button. The past few weeks, Eddie’s spur of the moment advice blog had suddenly gained a ridiculous amount of popularity after a screenshot of one his posts had made its way onto a Buzzfeed article. With all the new followers, a great influx of messages had come along as well. Including this specific purple heart emoji anon, who seemed to be completely and utter smitten with somebody who worked in the same place as he did. And Eddie well, maybe Eddie was a little in love with how in love his anon was. Or maybe he wanted somebody to love him that much.

“Good moooooorning, beautiful!”

Eddie startled, quickly slamming the lid of his computer down. His advice blog was a top secret of his, the only person who knew he did was his best friend from high school, Mike. They’d both made blogs back in the early years of high school, and Eddie had clung to his as a perfect escape from the bullshit of the real world. He didn’t think Mike still used it, but he was the only person who knew that Eddie used his. And what he used it for.

Richie Tozier worked at the Starbucks across from Eddie’s store in the mall, and he’d seemed to latch onto Eddie on his very first day on the job. They were both college students trying to make ends meet with part time jobs when they weren’t in their classes or sleeping, and Richie had declared them kindred spirits. That had been almost two years earlier, and Eddie had officially been selling skinny jeans and sweaters to teenager girls for way too long.

“Sure slammed that shut pretty quick,” Richie commented with a small whistle. He raised his eyebrow and cocked his lips up into half a grin. His small overbite was barely obvious from that smile, but it was still annoying adorable. Eddie supposed that must things were annoyingly adorable about Richie Tozier.

“Sure slammed that shut pretty quick,” Richie commented with a small whistle. He raised his eyebrow and cocked his lips up into half a grin. His small overbite was barely obvious from that smile, but it was still annoying adorable. Eddie supposed that must things were annoyingly adorable about Richie Tozier. “Are you looking at porn on the job, Kaspbrak? Or do you just have deep dark hidden secret out there on the Internet?”

Eddie flushed. “You’re not supposed to be behind the counter.”

Richie held his hands up in defense, each one holding a Starbucks cup and rolled his eyes. “Fine. I’ll just take your iced coffee back over to work and dump it out then.”

“You’ll do no such thing!” Eddie cried, flopping forward in his chair to make grabby hands at smaller cup. Richie let out a laugh and handed the drink to Eddie, tucking his own empty hand into the back pocket of his jeans.

Eddie took a sip of the drink and let out a loud sigh. Richie had perfected his drink to the point where Eddie wouldn’t go to Starbucks if Richie wasn’t working. On the nice days when Richie’s shift started before Eddie’s, Eddie wouldn’t have to get up and get it himself at all. “Are you done now?” Eddie asked, glancing at the clock on the wall behind him. It was a little after noon, a _bit_ early for Richie to be finished his shift but he knew that Richie did like to take shorter shifts during exam season.

“Nah.” Richie said, sipping at his red-coloured, syrupy iced drink that Eddie was never brave enough to ask what was in it. “I’m going on my break. Want to go see the outside world with me and remember what it’s like to be free?”

Eddie clucked his tongue, and turned on the chair to look at his coworker, Kay. “Is it okay if I go on my break now?” It _was_ a little early to Eddie to take a break, and he knew he’d probably regret it later when he had to move through the last several hours of his shift in one go, but he was still going to jump at the chance.

Kay looked up from the binder of the summer sales that were coming in, and smirked as she caught sight of Richie standing with Eddie. “Yeah, we’re completely dead,” Kay replied. “I’m not sure why Barb insists on scheduling two people in the middle of the day when our entire target audience is in school.”

“K thanks!” Eddie jumped down from the chair, sticking his tongue out at Kay as Richie turned around. He supposed that his raging crush on the lankier guy hadn’t exactly been subtle over the last year or so, but it was subtle enough that Richie hadn’t seemed to notice and that was what mattered in the long run.

He remembered how annoyed he’d been when he’d realized that he’d fallen for the stupid barista boy like a goddamn internet cliche. But then again, Eddie had never claimed to be anything more than an Internet cliche, so what the point in fighting it? He’d let himself fall full forward into liking Richie, and found that he enjoyed Richie even more than he’d originally realized. Once he stopped fighting his crush, and let himself genuinely find Richie funny and amusing, life became so much lighter.

Richie jumped up onto the curb stop once they’d gotten outside, and swung his leg around while drinking from the red drink of death. “So... are you going to invite me to Mike’s party this weekend?”

Eddie raised one eyebrow, a challenge. “I’m assuming that since you’re asking about it, that Mike has already asked you.”

“Well, yeah.” Richie huffed, but he was still smiling. “But _you_ didn’t ask me, Eddie. And that hurts. I thought we were lovers.”

Eddie rolled his eyes, but he knew that he was blushing. “I don’t know what _ever_ gave you that idea, Richard, but I’ll have you know that I didn’t invite anybody to this party. Because it’s Mike’s party, for his weird fuckboy boyfriend. I just happen to live in the same house as that party. I’ll be spending it in my room, probably watching re-runs of the Office with Chinese food.”

Richie jumped off the curb and landed in front of Eddie. “Well then- invite me to that.”

Eddie narrowed his eyes. “You want to spend your Saturday night sitting alone with me watching the Office?”

“My favourite show with my favourite boy?” Richie reached out and pinched Eddie’s cheeks. Eddie swatted him away with a grumble. “Honestly, I couldn’t think of anything I’d rather do on Saturday. It’s not like I’d be drinking _anyway.”_

Eddie nodded, knowing all about Richie’s long and poor history with alcohol that had peaked the year before they’d met. Still though... parties seemed like something Richie enjoyed, as somebody who thrived on social environments. “You're welcome to come over and watch the Office with me,” Eddie said with small smile. “And I promise I won’t be offended when you ditch me for the music and chatter of half the school in my tiny living room.”

Richie tossed an arm around Eddie’s shoulder and pulled him into him. “I would never ditch my Eds!”

xxx

“I swear,” Richie said, gesturing towards Eddie’s small bedroom television set. They were both laying together, Eddie’s small enough that they were pressed together from top to bottom. It wasn’t the first time they’d been seated in Eddie’s bed like this, but it made Eddie’s heart race everytime. “It takes Pam and Jim longer to get together every time I want this show.”

Eddie let his head lull to the side, crinkling up his nose. He, personally, could barely hear the show over the raging music from the party outside the walls. Mike had promised to try and keep it down for them, but Eddie hadn’t really expected much. “They get together in the same episode every time.”

“Yes, Edward.” Richie rolled his eyes, letting his hand come down and start to fiddling with the rainbow pride rope bracelet that Eddie always wore on his left wrist. “In my old age, I just find myself a little less tolerant of all this slowburn. They’re obviously soulmates, why _must_ we sit through so much bullshit when they should just have gotten together at the start?”

Eddie chuckled, hoping Richie couldn’t feel his blood rushing under his hold on his wrist. “I _like_ the slowburn. It’s interesting, you know? Two people who obviously right for each other but had to the get the timing right too. That’s the whole part of it. I think Jim and Pam wouldn’t have been nearly as interesting and powerful as couple if they’d gotten together right at a beginning and never had to like... really go through it together.”

“I just don’t think love should always have to be such a struggle.” Richie said, moving on from playing with Eddie’s bracelet to simply rubbing at Eddie’s wrist. “Why can’t just once I see a couple get together and then nothing bad ever happens, the end.”

Eddie smiled softly. “Why, Richard Tozier, I didn’t know you were such a closet romantic.”

“There’s lots you don’t know about me, Eds.” Richie tilted his head back down and smiled at him. Eddie blinked sleepily at him, letting his smile turn slightly confused. Richie let out a sigh. “Like, uh... I probably never told you this, but I think the best decision I ever made was going over to talk to you that day when you surrounded by all those preteens that were freaking out that you guys were sold out of those new Kardashian jeans.”

Eddie groaned, head falling into Richie’s neck. He told himself he imagined that Richie’s seemed to jump underneath him at the pressure of Eddie’s body.“Oh my God, that was the worst fucking day.”

“Wow,” Richie chuckled, moving Eddie’s body with his. Richie had always been a touchy feely friend, but Eddie didn’t think they’d ever been _this_ close. “Guess I’ll just die.”

“ _Obviously_ the only good part of the day was the big gangly losers coming over and handing me a coffee even thought he’d never met and wasn’t sure how I even took it.” Eddie laughed, shifting so he could look at him, chin resting on Richie’s chest.

“Hey.” Richie waggled his eyebrows. “I made a wicked iced coffee that day.”

“It was edible.” Eddie said dryly. “But I think I was so high on anxiety, you could have handed me hot piss in a cup and I would’ve drank it without a second thought.”

“That’s disgusting,” Richie laughed, leaning in to press a quick kiss to Eddie’s forehead. “I thought I was supposed to be the disgusting one.”

Eddie’s entire face flushed. “You’re not _that_ disgusting.”

Something odd and soft came over Richie’s face, and he was leaning closer... closer... Eddie took in a shaky breath, closed his eyes...

A loud crash, followed by Mike swearing, broke them apart. Eddie rolled his eyes and paused the show. “Want to help me kick some ass?”

“Every single person in that room could kill me with one punch,” Richie replied, smiling cheekily. “But I would happily die in a fight for my Eddie Spaghetti.”

“Oh my God, fucking gross, how many times do I need to tell you not to call me that?”

“At least once more, apparently.”

xxx

After Richie and the party guests had all gone home, Eddie quickly logged into his blog and clicked onto his ask box. Right at the top was a message from the purple heart.

_fuck i almost kissed the cutie today! he seemed into it but this stupid party interrupt it and now im like??? do i try to kiss him again or was i over thinking it? ah ah ah pls send help. i need a whole army of strong men to carry me through this._

Eddie frowned.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Mike Hanlon let himself into Eddie’s bedroom, the way he’d been doing since the pair had been children. Eddie reacted the same way he had since they were children, as well- which was the say not at all. He didn’t even look up from his computer, still staring at the message in his inbox that was now nearly twenty-four hours old. 

“Are you really pissed about that lamp?” Mike asked, shaking Eddie out of his thoughts. Eddie finally lifted his head from the computer and frowned at his best friend. “Because I honestly thought you didn’t even like it, didn’t your aunt force it on you when your mom died?”

Eddie waved his hand impatiently at Mike. “No, dude, I don’t give a shit about that ugly ass lamp.” 

That answer didn’t seem to satisfy Mike, however, if the huff of breath he gave meant anything. “Then why have you been hiding in here all damn day? You’re not even dressed. I know it’s your day off, but you usually at least leave your room. Is it because of Bill, because I thought we-”

“Would you stop spiraling?” Eddie laughed a little awkwardly, scratching at his cheek absentmindedly. “I already told you I don’t care if you’re dating Denbrough, if you think he’s changed. So stop worrying about it. I actually like him a little bit more after he broke that lamp last night.”

Mike let out a relieved sigh before narrowing his eyes at Eddie once again. That doesn’t change the fact that something is wrong with you. If it’s not Bill or the ugly lamp, then why have you been moping in here all day?”

Eddie groaned. “Richie and I almost kissed last night. When Bill broke the lamp, it sort of ruined the whole moment and then we didn’t. We didn’t even talk about it.”

Mike dropped down onto the bed, staring at Eddie with wide eyes. “Bill interrupted your first kiss with Tozier? I’m withholding sex for a week.” Eddie laughed, socking Mike in the shoulder as Mike’s face turned serious again. “But you’re moping because you got cock blocked from a kiss last night? It’s still progress, Eddie. You can talk to him about it, I’m sure he’s been thinking about it all day, too. He’s been whipped for you for two years.”

Eddie rolled his eyes. “No, that’s not... Okay, so you know my advice blog? Got kind of popular a while ago after that stupid Buzzfeed article?”

“Yeah, what does that have to do-” Mike asked, before trailing off and closing his eyes. “Oh no.”

“I think Richie might have been messaging it for a couple months now,” Eddie continued speaking, though he suspected that Mike was already putting together most of the puzzle himself. “And I think he might have been talking about me. I got a message from the anon last night- they always mark their message with a purple heart- and it was just... too similar to what happened between Rich and I.” 

Eddie shuffled to sit up properly on the bed, tossing his laptop over to Mike and pointing to the open message on the screen. “If this is Richie, then he’s been messaging me for  _ months  _ talking about having a crush on me! It means Richie likes me!”

Mike blinked. “Eddie, even if this anon  _ isn’t  _ Richie- Richie still likes you. But you should probably figure out if this anon  _ is  _ Richie or not. Because I doubt Richie knows this blogger is you.” 

“Nobody knows this blogger is me, and I plan on keeping it that way until I die.” Eddie said firmly, watching the bored expression settle over Mike’s face. “But how I am supposed to figure out if it’s Richie or not! It’s not like I can answer this and be like... hey, does this happen to be the Starbucks douchebag with the curls who tried to kiss me while watching the Office last night? Ha ha! I’d totally expose myself! I don’t post personal stuff on this blog, Mike!”

“Stop spiraling,” Mike repeated Eddie’s earlier words back to him calmly. Eddie momentarily wondered how many times they’d spoken those exact words to one another in their friendship. “But this is actually easy. You’re an advice blog, right?” Eddie nodded. “So... give this anon advice, something for them to do, and if Richie does those things... then he’s your anon.”

“Oh my God, Mike.” Eddie tossed his arms around Mike’s shoulders. “You’re an absolute genius and a life saver and the love of my life.” 

The door to Eddie’s bedroom open again without warning, and this time Eddie rolled his eyes as Mike’s new boyfriend, Bill Denbrough, came in without wearing a shirt but still wearing a hat. “Eddie, do you like pepper on your home fries? Mike and I are doing b-b-b-breakfast for dinner since you didn’t eat this m-m-morning.” 

Bill then dropped his eyes to Mike and Eddie hugging on the bed, and frowned. “Do you two have m-m-matching Spongebob and Patrick paj-j-amas?”

Mike and Eddie broke down into giggles.

xxx

“And then he closed his eyes!” Richie shouted, tossing his hands into the air. “And then-”

Stanley Uris let out a loud, annoying sigh. “And  _ then  _ Denbrough broke the lamp in the living room, and interrupted it. Yes, I  _ know,  _ Richard. You’ve told me a hundred times. You told me last night when you got home. The most interesting part of your story was Eddie didn’t maim Bill Denbrough for breaking something in his house.” 

Richie waved Bill off, circling whipped cream on the top of a frappe. “Eddie hated that lamp, if anything he likes Denbrough a little bit more for breaking it. But you’re telling me that you don’t think the fact that Eddie was going to let me kiss him even if a little bit interesting?”

“Not really.” Stan said dryly. “You and Eddie have been doing this dance for what? Two years? It’s gotten a little boring. We all know how it’s going to end. 

You and Eddie Kaspbrak are going to get together, and one day get married and adopt a couple multi-racial babies.”

Richie sighed dreamily as he handed the drink to the incredible patient customer. Stan gave her an apologetic smile. “So, yes.” Stan said, gesturing at Richie with a spoon. “The most interesting part of your story for me, is Eddie’s conflict with Bill and his war on frat boys.” 

Richie flushed slightly, rolling the blue sanitation cloth between his hands. “Yeah, well... He’ll get over that. Eventually.”

“You said that two years ago,” Stan pointed out gently. “And he still hates them as much as he always has.” 

“Well, I’m not even a frat boy so it doesn’t matter!” Richie shot back, watching how Stan rolled his eyes and hummed while sounding completely unconvinced. Richie huffed angrily and stomped into the back room to pull out and check his phone. His heart started to race when he saw the Tumblr notification of the only blog he had push notifications on had posted. He grinned to himself when he saw that it was finally a response to his ask from last night.

_ Hey purple heart! <3 I have a bit of a challenge for you, if you’re interested! The best way to see if your crush likes you back, is to make your feelings a little more obvious! You said you worked in the same building, so next time you know you’re both on shift, bring your crush some dinner or lunch or whatever. Whatever you know if their favourite thing to eat in the mall. Anything to let him know that you’re thinking about him! Of course, I’ll never know if you don’t!  _

Richie grinned and bit down on his bottom lip. 

xxx

The next day at work, Eddie spun around in his chair, thinking about how much he liked being on the day shift at the ridiculous store. He barely had to do anything when there were no screechy teenage girls screaming in his face. His new college class schedule had done him a blessing, Eddie supposed. 

“Eddie, your boyfriend is here.” Kay whispered in Eddie’s ear as she walked behind him. Eddie jumped and turned around as Richie came ducking into the entry of the store. Eddie grabbed one of the paper clips and threw it at her.

“He’s not my fucking boyfriend!” Eddie hissed at her, but he hissed his words through a smile. 

“Hey.” Richie came around the back of the desk, a white plastic bag with obvious food containers in his hands. Eddie’s heart leaped as he turned around. Richie was the purple heart anon...  _ Richie was the purple heart anon. _ “I brought you some lunch, from that little Chinese place in the corner of the food court that you like so much. Chicken chow mein and spring rolls?” 

“Yes!” Eddie cried, accepting the food from Richie’s extended hands. Eddie curled his fingers over the handle and stood up. “What time do you get off tonight? You can come over after. We still didn’t get to the part where Jim and Pam finally get together.”

“That’s the best part,” Richie said, smiling gooly. “I’d love to come over tonight, Eds. I finish up at 7, which means I’ll be done at 8 because.... Well, you know.”

“Yeah. “ Eddie said the words so softly.  He let his hand come out and wrap around Richie’s wrist. “We can even make the popcorn on the stove like you like, even though microwaved popcorn is better.”

“It’s not about the taste, Eddie.” Richie said, as he said every time they’d had this conversation before. “It’s about the experience.”

Eddie rolled his eyes. “I’ll make some in the microwave, too. Just in case you remember half way through that you don’t like the taste of your experience.”

Richie tilted his head to side slowly, then his head came forward and he pressed his lips against Eddie’s quickly. He pulled back just as quickly, so quickly that Eddie didn’t have a chance to kiss back. He just stared up at Richie with wide eyes, blinking hard.

“Oh, shit, I’m sorry,” Richie instantly starting rambling. “I just.. I was going to kiss you the other night and I thought you seemed into it, you know?  You closed your eyes, I thought you wanted to... but if that wasn’t okay, then I’m sorry, we can just forget that I even did that. Or you can punch me, like one time? If that will make you feel better-”

“Richie, stop!” Eddie laughed. “That was okay, it was... it was so okay. You just surprised me. But it was absolutely okay! Don’t apologize or freak out!”

Richie’s cheeks seemed to turn a light shade of pink and he snapped his fingers together a couple of time. “Okay cool. Cool coolcoolcool cool. I gotta get back to work though, or Stan will kick me out of our apartment for abandoning him with the basics.”

Eddie inhaled sharply and pushed himself up onto his toes. He pressed his lips to Richie’s in a return kiss, feeling Richie’s lips move softly against his for a short moment before Eddie was dropping back down onto the balls of his feet. Richie looked at him a little dazed and Eddie couldn’t stop smiling. “Bye. I’ll see you after work, okay?” 

“Yeah. Yeah, see you.” Richie walked backwards, tripped slightly over a display of graphic T-shirts and then hurried out of the store with his face bright red. Eddie laughed and moved to put the shirts back in the proper order.

“Not your fucking boyfriend, huh?” Kay said dryly from behind the desk. 

Eddie just laughed.

 


	3. Chapter 3

_ purple heart: I TOOK YOUR ADVICE AND THEN IMPULSE KISSED HIM AND I THOUGHT ID FUCKED UP EVERYTHING BUT THEN HE SAID IT WAS OKAY AND HE KISSED ME BEFORE I LEFT AND WE’RE HANGING OUT TONIGHT OMG DO I HAVE A BF _

_ purple heart: holy shit i think i might have the cutest little boyfriend in the whole world how did i end up being the luckiest guy alive thank you sm your a god send to my life  _

_ purple heart: hey. i know you haven’t really been answering my messages lately idk if they’ve been being eaten or if they’re being buried in your ask or whatever. but im probably going to keep sending you messages because its the best place i can talk about my bf without my room mate yelling at me _

_ purple heart: i think i might be in love, but i dont know if im ready to say that outloud, but ill say it to you. it doesnt feel so scary to tell you.  _

Ever since he and Richie had made their relationship official, just a short two weeks earlier, Eddie had short of let his advice blog slip from his mind. He and Richie had been crashing at one another’s house more often that not through these two weeks, and though they hadn’t moved any further some heated making out, Eddie had gotten pretty used to having Richie wrapping around him every night. 

Richie grunted, pressing angrily at the keys on his Xbox remote. Eddie shifted so he was laying on his side, staring up at his boyfriend. He sighed happily, he didn’t think he’d ever get tired of even just mentally referring to Richie Tozier as his boyfriend. He’d been waiting for this longer than he’d even known. He’d wanted to be with Richie long before he’d finally admitted it to himself. 

“Richie...” Eddie hummed, sliding his hand out to brush across Richie’s stomach. “Did I tell you that Mike is moving in with Bill?”

Richie hummed, clicking frantically at the X button, holding the remote up higher as though it would help his game skill. Eddie pushed Richie’s T-shirt up, kissing lightly at his boyfriend’s stomach. He glanced up at Richie through his lashes, seeing Richie’s half smirk settle on his face.

“You’re way hornier than I ever imagined you would be, Eds.” Richie chuckled, lowering his controller. Eddie could tell he’d won over Richie’s attention when Richie’s fingers began to slow their actions. Eddie sucked a just below Richie’s belly button, and he grinned in victory when he felt Richie’s fingers running through his hair. 

Eddie rested his head on Richie’s stomach, grinning cheekily up at him. “Hi.”

One of Richie’s hands came down from Eddie’s hair to stroke at his cheek lightly. “Hey. Are you upset that Mike is moving out?”

“Awe, he does listen!” Eddie crawled up Richie’s body and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. Richie let out a small, happy hum against his lips and pulled Eddie more properly flush against his body. When Eddie pulled back, he noticed the genuine concern in his boyfriend’s eyes. He sighed and rested against him. “I’m not sad that Mike is moving out. I’m going to miss having him as a room mate- and I wished he hadn’t fallen in love with- but I’m still probably going to see him a hundred times a day. It’s not like he’ll be going half away across the country, he’s just moving two blocks. But I guess I’ll be a little lonely here by myself.” 

Richie rubbed at the back of Eddie’s neck, something he’d always done that Eddie hadn’t realized until recently was so domestic. Eddie pressed three quick kisses just under Richie’s chin, making the other men squirm and stifle a giggle. “Well, I won’t be lonely here, Eds. You know I’m going to be over all the time.”

“Do you want to move in?” Eddie mumbled against Richie’s neck, still mouthing at the skin mindlessly, barely aware of what he’d asked until he noticed Richie go stiff underneath him. Eddie immediately felt himself begin to panic. He rolled off of Richie and stared up at the ceiling.

“Do you...” Richie cleared his throat. “Do you want to take that question back?”

Eddie thought on it. He and Richie hadn’t been dating very long at all, but they’d been friends for years. Eddie probably would’ve asked Richie to move in if Mike moved out, whether they were in a relationship or not. “I mean... You don’t have to move in as my boyfriend. You could just move in as Richie. I have two bedrooms, I don’t need an empty bedroom.”

Richie was quiet for so long that Eddie felt his mind begin to start spinning. “Though, I get if you don’t want to.  I mean... you have a house, and a room mate... I’d understand if you don’t want to leave Stan-”

Richie laughed. “I’m sure that Stan has been long waiting the day I tell him I’m moving out.”

Eddie made a little, sad noise, reaching out to rub at Richie’s arm. “Baby, that’s not true! Stan’s probably like.. platonically in love with you, or whatever.”

Richie chuckled, dragging an arm around Eddie’s shoulders and pressing a kiss to his head. “I know, I know.” Richie took a piece of the fabric of Eddie’s shirt between his fingers and fiddled with it. “Okay but, question. Are you asking me to move in right now because you want me to, or because you accidentally blurted it out and now you’re trying to cover your ass?”

Eddie had never lied to Richie before, and he wasn't going to start now. “Maybe a little bit of both. I’d love for you to move in, but I’m also trying to cover my ass.”

Richie laughed, squeezing Eddie. “Let’s be responsible adults for one second and maybe come back to this idea.” 

Eddie hummed, nuzzling into Richie’s chest. He took hold of the Xbox controller and moved it onto the bedside table. Richie laughed again, rolling Eddie onto his back and pressing down against him. “Is that what all this was? Just some huge scheme to get my attention?”

Eddie hummed with a crinkly nosed smile, cupping the back of Richie’s head and pulling him down to press their lips together. Richie responded immediately, deepening the kiss and pressing their bodies together. Richie kissed the way he did most things; full of passion and incredibly enthusiastically. It never took long for Eddie to be unable to feel his legs.

But again, like most things in Richie’s life, he was very easily distracted. After just a few minutes of heavy kissing and wandering hands, Richie was pulling back with a wet noise and an innocent expression. “Do you want some Lemon Berry? Because I don’t know about you, but I could  _ really fucking go  _ for a blue raspberry slushie right now.”

Eddie couldn’t be annoyed for even a second, because as soon as Richie had said it- a slushie did should amazing right then. “Yes. But I want a cherry one.”

“Oh, fuck yeah.” Richie bounced off the bed, grabbing his hoodie off the back of Eddie’s desk and double checking for his wallet. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back, and then we’re making purple.”

“Oh my God, you’re a child.” Eddie laughed.

“You love me!” Richie called over his shoulder. He dashed out the door too quickly to notice the way Eddie’s breath caught in his throat and his face turned bright red. He pressed himself further into the bed and felt his heart racing. Did he love Richie?

Well, that was a stupid question. Richie had been one of the closest people to Eddie for the last two years, of course he loved him. Which was obviously what Richie had meant by his comment just then. A simple love, not... in love, love. But was Eddie in love? He couldn’t help but recall the excitement he’d felt when he’d read Richie’s purple heart anonymous message on his blog, saying that he thought he was in love. He’d been half waiting for Richie to tell him, but he’d never truly thought about what he would say in return. Was he in love with Richie?

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been sitting in his bed and dwelling, but soon Richie was skipping back into the room with a slushie in each hand. He had a cut on the side of his face from where he’d nicked himself shaving, and Eddie’s heart started tumbling inside his chest.

“I do.” Eddie said then, swallowing roughly and accepting the bright red drink from Richie’s hand. 

“You do what?” Richie asked, crinkling his brow. Eddie flushed, because of course Richie hadn’t spent his entire trip to Lemon Berry dwelling on a passing joke he’d made. Eddie cleared his throat. 

“I love you.”

Richie blinked at him three times, then dropped his eyes down to Eddie’s drink. “Hurry up and drink that.”

Eddie frowned. “What? Richie, I said-”

“I heard you.” Richie said firmly, nodding and starting to grin. “I love you, too. Now drink that stupid drink because I  _ really  _ wanna have purple tongues and harass Stan with the pictures.”

Eddie laughed and then drank until he got a brain freeze.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me, writing eddie making bad decisions: eddie you shouldn't do that.


End file.
